NAME
Devel::Dumpvar - A pure-OO reimplementation of dumpvar.pl
SYNOPSIS
use Devel::Dumpvar;
# Dump something immediately to STDOUT
Devel::Dumpvar->dump( [ 'foo' ], $bar' );
# Create a dump handle to use repeatedly
my $Dump = Devel::Dumpvar->new;
# Dump via the handler
$Dump->dump( 'foo', [ 'bar' ] );
DESCRIPTION
Most perl dumping modules are focused on serializing data structures
into a format that can be rebuilt into the original data structure. They
do this with a variety of different focuses, such as human readability,
the ability to execute the dumped code directly, or to minimize the size
of the dumped data.
Excect for the one contained in the debugger, in the file dumpvar.pl.
This is a much more human-readable form, highly useful for debugging,
containing a lot of extra information without the burden of needing to
allow the dump to be re-assembled into the original data.
The main downside of the dumper in the perl-debugger is that the
dumpvar.pl script is not really a readily loadable and useable module.
It has dedicated hooks from and to the debugger, and spans across
multiple namespaces, including main::.
Devel::Dumpvar is a pure object-orientated reimplementation of the same
functionality. This makes it much more versatile version to use for
dumping information to debug log files or other uses where you don't
need to reassemble the data.
METHODS
new( option => value, ... )
The "new" constructor creates a new dumping object. Any options can be
passed a list of key/value pairs.
Each option passed to the constructor is set via one of the option
methods below.
to( $output_destination )
The "to" option specifies where the output is to be sent to. When
undefined, output will go to STDOUT. The output destination can be
either a handle object ( or anything else with a ->print method ), or
the string 'return', which will cause the "dump" method to collect and
return the dump results for each call, rather than printing it
immediately to the output.
If called without an argument, returns the current value. If called with
an argument, returns true or dies on error.
dump( data1, data2, ... )
If called as an object method, dumps a number of data values or structs
to the dumping object. If called as a class method, creates a new
default dump object and immediately dumps to it, destroying the dumper
afterwards.
TO DO
- Implement options currently available in other dumpers as needed.
- Currently only supports SCALAR, REF, ARRAY, HASH and Regexp.
Add support for all possible reference types.
SUPPORT
Bugs should be reported via the CPAN bug tracker at
For other issues, or commercial enhancement or support, contact the
author.
AUTHORS
Adam Kennedy
COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2004 - 2010 Adam Kennedy.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included
with this module.